Notes
from Our Members

Couldn’t have
had a better day with Matthew [Glover, right] at William Paterson
University, where we reached over 1,000 students!
Great conversations, and a number of students
interested in going veg / getting active with
Vegan Outreach. One of them – Daniela – came
back to help leaflet, and later sent this message
to Matthew:
“I wanted
to say thanks for caring about animals as much
as I do. I was very excited to have met an animal
rights activist in person. I am filled with
excitement and can’t wait to begin helping animals
in need. I would also luv to help volunteer
for Vegan Outreach.”—Vic Sjodin, 11/5/12

Thanks to a Cuesta College student
who had an epiphany after being
leafleted at the SLO farmers’ market a couple
of weeks ago, we were invited to have a table
at Cuesta’s Fall Fest event. Very receptive
students, and the organizer of the event thanked
us profusely for coming, said she would keep
us in the loop about all future events they
have on campus, and said she could give us an
“in” for our own events on campus
anytime we’d like. How cool is that?! When I
went out to another area of campus to leaflet,
a teacher who couldn’t make it to the event
said she’d share the Compassionate Choices
with her class.—Barbara Bear, 10/31/12

Nettie and I reached over 1,000
students at the University of
Oregon. Many good conversations, including one with a man
who replied to my offer of a booklet by saying, “Oh, I buy
organic.”
I answered: “If you want
to go the route of eating animals who are treated
more humanely, it’s best to actually visit a
farm. Because sometimes when it has a label
like ‘organic,’ if you actually visited
the farm you wouldn’t like what you saw. Thank
you for considering the animals’ well-being
when you eat. And another thing you can do that’s
really good is to eat vegetarian some of the
time.”
I used to respond
to “humane” meat people by immediately
telling them why they were wrong. I do think
they’re wrong, but am trying to be more encouraging
– it’s a fine line to try to walk.—Cobie deLespinasse, 11/5/12

Probably the friendliest crowd
I’ve met was at tonight’s Propagandhi
concert. I caught the last few seconds of a
conversation among three young women that ended
with the phrase, “OK, Let’s go veg.”
One of the girls came over to me as the other
two were walking in and said she wanted to shake
my hand and thanked me for being there. Definitely
one of the top moments of my activist career
so far.—Kevin O’Connor, 11/5/12

At the University of Houston, a student is engrossed in Compassionate Choices (above), while Marc Camp fields questions from other interested individuals (below).

Good interactions
at Idaho State, including Audrey, who, after
getting a booklet earlier in the day, told me
it was “so cool” that I am vegan.
She’d thought about being vegan, but had been
convinced it would be too hard. I simplified
it for her, emphasized the number of athletic
friends I have, as well as the plethora of vegan
professional athletes, and mentioned the section
about staying healthy on plant-based diets
in the Guide. She seemed stoked! Also met Courtney,
who told me the booklet is a push for her to
move toward compassion. Guided her and left
her with some words of encouragement.—John Oberg, 11/1/12

It’s
part of Texas A&M culture
to address others with “Howdy!” Because
of this, my opening line would often be, “Howdy.
Info to help animals?” It went over well.
I was so surprised by how little antagonism
there was this time at TAMU. Even many of those
who were obviously involved in animal agriculture
took a booklet and thanked me. And besides the
lack of antagonism, I was heartened by the number
of students who told me how sad the booklet
was or that they’re vegetarian or vegan. One
young woman let me know that she took an animal
science class a little while ago, and that it
really bothered her, and left her with a sick
feeling about what we do to farmed animals.

Today was an amazing
day at the University of Houston. Renuka, my
brother Marc [left], and I reached more than 3,600
students. Not only was the leafleting prolific,
but so were the conversations. For example,
a talk with Zubair was one of the most engaging
and productive conversations I’ve had throughout
my history of outreach. We discussed many things,
including religion. After explaining that I’m
just one person and that there is great diversity
on this throughout the animal advocacy community,
my belief is this is the only life I’ll live
– I didn’t think those who lead lives of abject
misery now will be somehow rewarded in an afterlife.
This was one of the reasons why I took suffering
so seriously, and why I felt an urgency to do
something about it – because this existence
of suffering was all they had. But then when
it got to the fact that he was a Muslim, I pointed
out that our fellow leafleter Renuka was as
well, and I explained how I thought a life of mercy
and considerateness and really walking the walk
was a better advertisement for any religious
conviction than a life of following the status
quo. I also explained that I often feel more
connection to those of faith than the faithless
because they really believe in something greater
than themselves. Everything I said clicked with
him.—Jon Camp, 11/5/12

Vegan
Outreach is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
dedicated to reducing the suffering of
farmed animals by promoting informed,
ethical eating.